Called early due to rain, East Paulding girls’ tennis team defeated South Paulding’s girls 3-1 last week to finish their regular season.

With a record of 9-3, head coach Desiree Hill said the regular season went “very well.”

“We’re third in the region and we have two players that are 11-1,” Hill said.

These two players are junior Monica Behrle and senior Pamela Garcia, both singles players.

Garcia is new to East Paulding as she is an exchange student from Venezuela. According to Hill, Garcia has played tennis since she was 7 years old.

“She’s given us a boost in our singles. She’s very consistent,” Hill said.

Along with these two, Hill said her team has a lot of experience this season as they only lost two players to graduation, giving them five returners — Behrle, sophomore Christie Eads, sophomore Kirstan Sharp, senior Courtney Gibson and senior Erin Holtzclaw.

The varsity team includes two more players — sophomore Mackenzie Kuhn and junior Andrea Villena.

With two juniors and three sophomores on the team, Hill said she will have some good experience on the team for at least the next two years.

Having no games scheduled over spring break, Hill said she hopes team members will be on a court somewhere practicing like they promised her they would.

The next game for the team is set for Tuesday to start the region tournament. With Rome, Villa Rica and Woodland still having to play, Hill said she is unsure who her girls will be up against or what seed they’ll be.

“It all depends on Woodland and Rome. We’ll either be second or third,” said Hill.

According to Hill the farthest the program has gone under her direction was to the Sweet 16 in 2008. This season, Hill said she thinks this squad can go that far as well.

“I think we’ll make it at least to the Sweet 16. I want to go really far,” Hill said.

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